


yours was the first face that i saw

by loonyBibliophile



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Fluff, No Murder AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonyBibliophile/pseuds/loonyBibliophile
Summary: During a game of truth or dare, sixth grade Betty tells everyone she has a crush on Archie Andrews. The thing is, she doesn't. She has a crush on Jughead Jones.(Basically a 'Betty never had a crush on Archie, also there's no murder and Grundy isn't there' AU)





	yours was the first face that i saw

The lie that very nearly ruins Betty Cooper’s life in her sophomore year of high school started in the sixth grade. It was a nothing lie, told at a slumber party during a game of truth or dare. They’re a bunch of sixth through eighth grade girls, so pretty much all the questions are about crushes and kisses and calling crushes on the phone. Betty squirms in her spot on the floor, dreading when someone finally calls on her. It’s Cheryl’s turn, and Betty is almost positive the older redhead is going to be her reckoning. 

“Betty!” Cheryl says with a clap, and a grin, leaning across the circle. “Truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” Betty says, instantly. She is not brave. She doesn’t want to answer their questions but she even more so doesn’t want to DO anything. It’s the lesser of two evils. 

“Who do you have a crush on?” the question rolls off of Cheryl’s lips without a minute of hesitation. Betty sighs. She can’t say no one, Polly has heard her playing Top 20 Love Songs in her room and will call her bluff. But she can’t tell the truth, either. The girls at this party, except maybe Polly and Ethel, won’t understand. They’d be mean about it. They’d tease her, and worse, they’d probably tease him too. So she lies. Instead of telling this room full of nearly teenage girls she has a crush on the weird boy they all make fun of who literally never takes off his hat, she panics and says-

“Archie. Archie Andrews.” 

“Duh, Cheryl,” Polly adds, rolling her eyes and bumping her sister’s shoulder “Everyone knows Betty is in love with Archie.” 

This piece of information surprises Betty. She didn’t think everyone knew, er, thought that. Did people think that? If anything, she’d always been worried her actual feelings for the third member of their trio were too obvious. 

“Boy next door? Booooring.” Cheryl says, smacking her gum. “Your answer doesn’t count, I’m asking someone else.” 

And the focus moves on to someone else, and everything goes back to normal, except Riverdale is a small town and Betty Cooper Has A Crush On Archie Andrews becomes a thing everyone knows and accepts as town fact.

For the most part, this works out well for Betty. Archie almost always has some girl he has a crush on, so she has a built in excuse to never try and take him to things like parties or middle school dances when people pester her about making a move. Instead, she drags Jughead by bribing him with cupcakes and they huddle into a corner and spend the whole night talking, until Betty wheedles Jughead out for ‘just one dance, please, Juggie?’

And no one ever questions it, because who would have a crush on Jughead Jones, right?

The answer is Betty. Betty would, and does, have a terrible crush on Jughead Jones. It started in the fifth grade. Jughead still lived in the neighborhood then, and Betty and Archie are both in Jughead’s backyard on a sunny spring day. Archie has been roped into playing the bad guy in a game of Nancy Drew, yet again, so he’s hiding in the tree house while Jughead and Betty dig through the bushes for ‘clues’. 

“You should be the bad guy next time, Juggie, Archie isn’t very good at it.” Betty says wisely, turning over a paving stone. 

“But then I couldn’t solve the mystery! Maybe you should be the bad guy.” Jughead frowns, and kicks at a brick. 

“We can take turns.” Betty moves on from the paving stone and pushes further into the shrub in front of her. She jumps back with a shriek suddenly “Snake!” 

While Betty stumbles back, Archie jumps down from the treehouse, ready to rush in and play the hero, as always. 

“Wait!” Jughead says, shaking his head at Archie. He runs into the house and returns moments later with a book, and watches the snake from a safe distance as he flips through it. Grinning, he turns towards the other two, pointing at a glossy photo of a green gardener snake. “It’s okay, he’s harmless. D’you wanna help me move him to the field across the street?” Archie looks grossed out and shakes his head, but Betty grins and nods. 

“Let’s go get a bucket.” she decides, and wanders off to find one in Jellybean’s sandbox. She and Jughead get the snake into the plastic bucket, and wander out of the yard and down the street with it hanging between them. 

“You know,” Betty says, looking down at it, “Now that I know it’s harmless, it’s kind of cute.” 

Jughead’s eyes light up at this, and he spends the rest of the walk to the field, back to the house, and a good part of the rest of the afternoon telling Betty literally everything he knows about snakes and reptiles. She listens raptly, smiling at her best friend, and thinks maybe she understands what her sister meant we she talked about having butterflies in her stomach. 

So that’s how it starts. And not much changes after Betty lies in the sixth grade, and at times the lie even seems to work in her favor. The boys almost always sit on one side of the lunch table, while she sits on the other, so if anyone catches her dreamily staring across from her, they all assume she’s staring at the redheaded boy instead of the boy with the dark curls and the big blue eyes. She still plays truth or dare sometimes, but she’s gotten smarter about lying, and if people ask her who she has a crush on, she smiles sweetly and tells them she has a crush on her best friend. 

She’s not lying. They just think she’s talking about the wrong friend. 

When she gives both the boys elaborate Valentines, they assume Jughead’s is the decoy so no one gets suspicious. But really it’s Archie’s Valentine that secretly has the less fancy cupcake and less cherry tootsie pops. The cherry tootsie pops are important, because they’re Betty’s favorite, but Jughead likes them too, so she always gives extra to him even though she wants them. 

When they get older, and Archie starts holding girls’ hands and going on dates, threesome hangouts turn into twosome hangouts. While an outsider would think Betty and Jughead still hang out just for lack of anything else to do, Betty secretly lives for the trio movie nights that suddenly, unexpectedly, become pseudo movie dates when Archie bails on them. This is how Betty and Jughead grow their mutual love of classic films, by spending Friday nights the summer before eighth grade watching the black and white feature of the week at the Twilight’s first Friday dollar nights. While Archie is sharing a milkshake with Josie McCoy at Pop’s, Jughead and Betty are hiding at the back of the drive-in lot with an old blanket, watching Casablanca. 

Her freshman year, Betty befriends Kevin Keller, and the Archie lie comes out yet again, because the poor mostly closeted (at the start of the year, anyway) boy is determined to live vicariously through Betty, and thus tries to push her into making moves on Archie, who is blissfully unaware of anything that is going on and is nursing a massive crush on the senior captain of the girl’s water polo team. Kevin, however, declares Archie and Betty ‘endgame’ and gets weirdly invested in the whole thing, which makes Betty wonder if Kevin might actually have a crush on Archie himself. 

Then sophomore year rolls around and Veronica Lodge arrives in Riverdale and everything starts to spiral out of control. 

What happens is that Veronica says Archie is hot and, trying to be a good friend, Kevin says Archie is off limits. Veronica is determined to become Betty’s newest and bestest friend, and seems to think the best way to do this is to convince Betty to make a move on Archie. 

“How’s the new girl?” Jughead asks later, leaning across the table at Pop’s to dip a french fry into Betty’s chocolate shake. 

“She seems nice, if a little… enthusiastic? But I guess if I’d moved here from the big city, I’d feel like I needed to posture too.” Betty shrugs and reaches over herself, stealing a few of Jughead’s fries before highlighting a line of text in her workbook. “What do you think you’ll do the semester long report for advanced english on?” 

“I’m thinking ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote. What about you, Betts?” 

“Something by Toni Morrison, probably ‘Song of Solomon’ or ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Betty answers, shrugging and taking a sip of her shake, then pushing the glass towards Jughead, who accepts it gratefully. 

“Well, aren’t we predictable?” he raises an eyebrow and smirks, and Betty’s stomach does backflips while he sips from her straw. “So do you think miss Veronica Lodge genuinely wants to be your friend, or is she Cheryl Blossom 2.0?”

“I think she’s being genuine. She seems really lonely. She wants me to go out for the River Vixens with her, and it would look great on my college applications, so I think I’m going to give it another shot.” 

“After last year? And what Cheryl said to you?” Jughead frowns, and looks over at her, clearly concerned. 

“She wasn’t always evil, I choose to believe the person she used to be is still in there somewhere. So yes, I’m trying out again.” 

“Well, more time for you to stare at Archie, I guess, since he made varsity.” Jughead’s voice has an edge to it, and it’s Betty’s turn to frown. She always feels weird when Jughead brings up her ‘crush’ on their shared best friend, not just since it isn’t true, but also because he always acts weird about it. And it’s not like she can tell him the truth. ‘Yeah, by the way Juggie, I don’t actually have a crush on Archie, I’ve been using that as an excuse for years so no one will figure out I’m in love with you’, that would go over really well, Betty is positive. Not. 

“What is even the point of going to watch a crush or a partner to drool over them at a football game? They’re all indiscernible under all the padding and helmets. Besides, maybe I just want to sign up for the cute uniform.” Betty grins playfully, and pulls back her shake. She wonders if Jughead is too focused on his outcast persona to care about what she would look like in a cheer uniform. She hopes not. She actually kind of likes the idea of him coming to pick her up after practice in his dark clothes and his flannels and his heavy boots, wrapping his arms around her in her short pleated skirt and tight sweater, ponytail bobbing perkily behind her. They say opposites attract, after all. She hopes the idea of her in a River Vixen uniform turns the tips of Jughead’s ears red, just a little. 

“You are, as always, an enigma, Betty Cooper.” Jughead says, smiling that little sideways smile of his that makes Betty’s heart fizz like a fresh mixed glass of Pop’s cherry soda. 

After she and Veronica make the Vixens, things start to get complicated. She and Veronica are walking to the lockers after practice, wearing their brand new uniforms for the first time, when Veronica waves down Archie across the football field. 

“Time to make a move, B.” Veronica whispers, wiggling her eyebrows. “Ask him to the spring dance.” 

“Oh, no, I can’t I-” Betty starts to protest, but it’s too late. Archie is there and Betty is bright red from being flustered and Veronica probably just thinks she’s nervous because she elbows Betty and looks over at Archie. 

“Our freshly minted River Vixen Betty here has something to ask you, Mr. Big Man on Campus.” 

“Um, yes,” Betty stammers, trying to think of a way out of this. “I was just wondering if you wanted to come to the dance. With us! Both of us! Veronica’s new here after all, and we’ve lived here forever.” Veronica sends her a look that is at once confused and withering, but Archie just shrugs and nods. 

“Sure, why not. We can hang out at the dance.” Archie smiles, eyes focused on Veronica’s legs. Betty rolls her eyes. 

“Great! I gotta go, bye guys!” she waves and rushes off, heading for Pop’s before anyone can question her about what she’s just done. When she gets there, Jughead is in their usual back booth, with his laptop, a cup of coffee, and an only just starting to melt strawberry shake. His face is buried in a book, and Betty calls his name as she approaches. She wants to see if he reacts, at all, to the uniform. 

“Juggie!” she calls, waving and grinning. Jughead turns his head, looks at her and grins, and she watches him blink a few times as the outfit she wears registers. Well, he noticed. She just isn’t sure what that look meant. Which is easily ninety percent of the reason she’s never told him how she feels. Jughead is hard to read about things like girls. Did he even like girls? Boys? Anybody? He’d never expressed any real interest in dating anyone, let alone her, so she’d always kept it to herself, afraid to lose a close and cherished friendship by making things weird.

“Oh, uh, Betts.” he pauses. Swallows. Betty grins and half jogs over to their booth. “Hey.” 

“What are you reading?” she asks, pulling her shake over and leaning across the table to see. Jughead instantly lights up and launches into a lengthy explanation of his current light reading, a book exploring the theories of regional noir and gothic. By the time he’s promising to lend it to her when he’s done, the other kids from the high school are pouring into the diner, and it’s getting loud. So Betty scoots her shake across the table, and Jughead scoots in on the bench seat, making room for her beside him instead of across from him. 

Near the door, Veronica, Archie, and a handful of people from the cheer squad and football team scope for a table. Veronica spots Betty huddled into the corner and starts to move towards her, but Archie shakes his head and steers her towards a different booth. 

“She’s with Jughead. This is like, their thing. It’s really important to him and I don’t wanna crash it.” Archie says, pointing at the boy sitting beside Betty, a grey crown shaped beanie pulled low over his forehead while he points at something on one of Betty’s notebook pages. Veronica raises an eyebrow, but follows along. 

The next week, Betty is swamped with work, because being on student council means she has to help decorate for the spring dance. It also means she can’t really bail on Archie and Veronica, since she has to be there for at least awhile as part of the committee. Then there’s homework, and baking batch after batch of cookies to convince Jughead the two of them should reopen the defunct school paper together. It was the perfect plan. It would look great on both their college applications, give them work and writing experience, and it was unquestioned solo time to spend together. 

 

It’s a Wednesday, and she and Jughead are sitting on one side of a table while Veronica, Archie, and Kevin sit on the other. 

“I just don’t think it’s the right fit for my voice, Betts.” Jughead says, shrugging as he stuffs an entire cookie in his mouth. 

“Comeo on Juggie please? I’ll give you free reign on subject matter, as long as you let me proofread and nothing will get us suspended.” She clasps her hands and looks at him hopefully, and Jughead rolls his eyes. 

“Give me your Ruffles and we’ve got a deal.” he smirks, and pulls the bag of chips off her tray. Betty beams, and steals a fry from his plate. Instead of protesting, Jughead just rolls his eyes again. Archie is giving Jughead a look that Betty can’t quite parse, so she turns her attention to Veronica instead, who’s been trying to get her attention for a good ten minutes. 

“Anyway, V, what were you saying?” Betty smiles and rests her chin on her hands. 

“Oh! Archie had the best idea. He said we should go Pop’s before the dance, for dinner!” Veronica grins and looks from Betty to Archie. Betty snorts internally, but thankfully manages to school her face into something neutral. There’s a significant chance Archie was asking Veronica on a date, and Veronica just invited Betty along. Veronica was certainly trying, Betty had to give her that. 

“I actually have to be at the dance early. Committee duties.” Betty shrugged. It was true. Jughead made a face. 

“Meanwhile, while you guys are making merry and getting into trouble, I will be running first Friday dollar film night, alone.” 

“Shut up, Jug, you hate people, and you love your job.” Betty says, rolling her eyes and stealing one of her chips back. 

“Betty usually spends the first Friday of every month at the Twilight with Jughead.” Archie turns to Veronica, explaining.

It’s true. Betty had actually been planning on cutting out of the dance early and going to the drive in to end her night. She’d even told Jughead this, but he’d just rolled his eyes at her, and used that weird voice he used to talk about her and Archie, so she’d decided to consider it a surprise. She’d rather be in the Twilight projection room watching Roman Holiday than in the school gym anyway. 

“You guys have a lot of traditions.” Veronica offered, biting a forkful of salad. 

“We’ve all known each other forever.” Betty says in response, maybe a little too quickly. 

“You should take the night off, Jug. Come to the dance with us.” Archie offers suddenly, giving Jughead another look that Betty can’t make sense of. Jughead scoffs. 

“Sorry, Arch, but some of us need our afterschool jobs to live.” 

The bell rings, and their conversation comes to an end as they all rush off to their respective classes. 

And before Betty knows it, she’s in the gym the night of the dance, wearing a coral dress her mother picked out, yelling at Ethel Muggs who’s at the top of a ladder with a bunch of yellow balloons. The night drags on, and every time Betty tries to make a break for it, Veronica pulls her onto the dance floor. Betty loses track of how many awkward dances she has with Archie while Kevin and Veronica sway in the background, looking at them expectantly. She’s so desperate to leave that when Cheryl appears out of nowhere and invites them all to her house, Betty says yes. 

This is a decision she comes to regret. 

They play seven minutes in heaven, because of course they do, and Cheryl declares that the new girl goes first, and Veronica spins the empty Cheerwine bottle. It lands on Archie. Veronica looks at Betty, worried. Archie looks thrilled. Everyone else looks intrigued. Betty can’t explain why she doesn’t care, so she just shrugs. Cheryl tells Veronica that if Archie doesn’t go into the closet with Veronica, she’ll take him herself, so with a long, apologetic look at Betty, Veronica heads for the coat closet. Betty waits two minutes, looks vaguely upset, and leaves. 

By the time she sneaks into the projection room, the film is already halfway over. Jughead looks tired, and he’s slumped on one of his pillows. Betty had offered to let him come stay with her when she found out he was living in the drive in, but he’d declined, and honestly she couldn’t blame him. Her parents were kind of insane. He turns, and smiles when he sees her lowering herself to the floor on the other side of the projector. She pushes a Pop’s bag over to him silently, and sips at a milkshake in a to go cup. In her purse, her phone is on silent, lit up with text after text from Veronica, begging her forgiveness and asking where she went. 

“Pop’s should sell swirled milkshakes.” Jughead says later, his back propped up against the cot he uses as a bed as he alternates sips of his double chocolate shake with Betty’s strawberry. 

“I’m sure if you asked, he’d mix all the flavors together for you, Juggie. Call it the Jughead Jones Special. Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla milkshake, with extra whipped cream, sprinkles, and cherries, with an extra overflow tin.” Betty grins and stretches out, stiff from being on the cold floor. Her dress is wrinkled and her mother will probably kill her, but she doesn’t care. There isn’t anywhere she’d rather be right now. 

“Do you think they end up together, eventually?” Jughead asks suddenly, looking over at Betty. “Princess Ann and Joe Bradley? Or are they just too different?” 

Betty smiles, a soft and quiet expression, and scoots closer to Jughead on the floor. 

“I like to think so. I bet you disagree. You’re cynical.”

“They’re just… they’re from different worlds, Betty.” Jughead says, a strange amount of emphasis in his voice. He looks sad, and Betty wants to rub the expression off his face with her fingertips. 

“Love doesn’t care about that stuff, Juggie. That’s the point.” Betty’s voice is quiet in the dark and empty projection room, and silence stretches beyond the door into the empty parking lot. 

“But the world cares.” Jughead stresses, waving a hand around. “It was 1953, a princess can’t just marry a newspaper reporter. No one would let that happen.” 

“You just have to love the other person so much it doesn’t matter.” she says carefully, stirring the dregs of her shake with the straw “You love them until everything else fades away, and the only choice you have is to find a way to make it work.” 

The next morning at school, Veronica shows up with expensive pastries and a vase of yellow roses. Betty thanks her, but puts a hand firmly on her shoulder to explain something to her. 

“I’m not mad V. I’m really not. I think you like Archie, and I’m positive he likes you, and I honestly think you should go for it. But be careful, he can be kind of flighty. But really, V. Archie and I were never going to happen, and I’m okay with that.”

“But, Kevin said you’ve had a crush on him forever! I can’t do that you B, I’m not that person anymore.” Veronica is frowning and looks upset and confused. Betty sighs, and makes a decision. 

“Meet me at Pop’s after school today. There’s something I have to explain to you.” 

So that afternoon, over shakes and fries, Betty tells Veronica the whole story. Well, mostly. She tells her that her crush on Archie was a lie at a slumber party that spiralled out of control. At some point, it had just started being easier to let everyone assume she had a crush on Archie than try to explain what happened. Archie didn’t know, because Archie was oblivious, so really until Veronica had transferred in and teamed up with Kevin to form Team Barchie, the whole thing was working out pretty well for her. 

“Wait so… if you weren’t mad about me and Archie playing seven minutes in heaven, why did you storm out of the party?” Veronica frowns. 

“I was always going to leave the dance early. I had to go because I was on the committee, and then you made me ask Archie so I doubly had to go, but my plan was to leave after an hour or so. Cheryl’s stunt gave me an opportunity to skip out, so I did. But I am sorry for kind of throwing you under the bus.” 

“But where did you go? You ignored all my messages for like, hours. Why would you do that if you weren’t upset?” Veronica is still confused, and Betty sighs, knowing telling her anything else is a risk and she’s going to do it anyway. 

“I had plans. My phone was off, and then by the time I got home it was late enough I didn’t want to bother you.” Betty shrugged and ate a french fry, trying to look casual. 

“Where were you that your phone was off?”

“The movies.” is all Betty says, and she hopes that somehow Veronica doesn’t put two and two together, but the girl is smart as hell, so that’s probably wishful thinking. Betty literally watches the light bulb go off in Veronica’s eyes. 

“The drive in? Where Jughead works? Where you go every first Friday of the month?” Veronica is grinning and looks like she’s planning something and Betty is regretting every word she has ever spoken. 

“Yeah, it’s what we would do when Archie had Friday night dates, and now classic movies are sort of our thing. Roman Holiday was playing that night.”

Betty had picked the movie, but Veronica really did not need to know that. 

“Soooo” Veronica says, drawing the word out several syllables “Why did you lie and say you had a crush on Archie?”

“I didn’t want to tell Cheryl who I had a crush on. She wasn’t full mean girl back then, not yet, but she was getting unpleasant. I was pretty sure she’d make fun of me. And probably him, too.” Betty winces. She’s probably said too much. 

“Betty Cooper.” Veronica sounds delighted, directing a wide eyed stare right at Betty “Do you have a crush on Jughead Jones?” Betty shrugs.

“Maybe. It’s possible.” she tries to evade, pushing ketchup around with a fry before she sighs again and just gives up. “Yes, I’ve had a crush on him since the fifth grade. He saved me from a snake and then instead of hurting the snake he put it in a bucket and released it in a field.”

Veronica blinks. Whatever she expected Betty to give as a reason, that was clearly not it.

“Why haven’t you told him?” Veronica asks after a silence.

“I don’t even know if he’s like… into that. He’s never dated, or even had a crush, as far as I know. He could like boys. Or he could like no one. And I don’t think it would be easy to just move on and not be weird if I told him and he rejected me. Jug isn’t like Archie he’s… more thoughtful. He’d be so worried about hurting me or leading me on that our post-confession friendship would fall apart. And I really don’t want to lose him as a friend.” Betty shrugs. It’s the first time she’s ever told someone the whole truth, and it feels weird. 

After that, things mostly return to the status quo. Someone tries to shut the Twilight down, but she and Jughead organize a themed screening of Rebel without a Cause to drum up enough interest and business to keep it open, at least a little while longer. Archie starts dating Valerie, one of the members of Josie and the Pussycats. Veronica goes on a few disastrous dates, and then just decides to spend her weekends hanging out with Kevin or Betty. 

Jughead’s been weird lately, and it makes Betty worry her lower lip and wonder what he isn’t telling her. One night at Pop’s she sees him, headphones on, making a playlist in iTunes. It’s all Bright Eyes and The Mountain Goats and Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka, and Betty feels her heart break a little. Because he must be making that for someone. He must have found someone. She waits to see him holding hands with someone in the hall, someone who wears dark clothes like his and never takes off their headphones. But it never happens, and while there’s still an ache in the back of her chest, she mostly forgets about it as her sister’s teen pregnancy makes itself known and the Cooper house erupts into constant drama. 

One afternoon, her mother had pulled her away from Pop’s, where she and Jughead had been trading notes for the english class. Alice had stormed in, screaming Betty’s full name and waving her arms around, and Jughead had watched, eyes worried, as Betty shrugged and followed her mother out of the diner, her eyes on the ground. 

She texts him, later, and tells him what happened, so he understands. She also vents a little, complaining about how her mother is responding to Polly’s situation by trying to put Betty on complete lock down, and her parents both want to send Polly away to some home, and the whole thing is just too messed up for words. When he doesn’t respond, Betty feels the ache in her chest intensify, and she just turns on her radio and sits down at her desk to write. 

Less than an hour later, she hears a noise. A knock, at her second story window. Betty frowns, turning around, and sees Jughead smiling that sideways smile through her window at her, perched on the top rung of a ladder. 

“Hey there, Juliet.” he says as she opens the window to let him in, and she snorts, her face flushing pink. His face is soft, and he opens his arms to offer a hug, and she accepts, leaning into him. He grasps her shoulder with one hand, looking at her carefully. 

“It’s going to be okay, Betts.” 

“They want to lock her up, Juggie. They want to send her away, and my mother wants to put me under house arrest, and my father tried to convince Polly to get an abortion behind Mom’s back, and everything is just… crazy. They’re crazy. My parents are crazy.” 

“They’re parents, Betty. They’re all crazy.” Jughead says, deadpan. Betty rolls her eyes, but she smiles, just barely. 

“But what if I’m crazy too? What if I’m just like them?” Betty’s voice is desperate, and she fights the urge to dig her nails into her palms. 

“Hey. We’re all crazy. We’re not our parents, Betty.” he says softly, gripping her shoulder tighter. “We’re not our families.” 

It’s exactly what she needs to hear, and she looks up at him, her eyes soft, and smiles. Jughead is staring at her, his eyes moving around her face. He swallows. 

“Also—” he starts to speak, but cuts himself off, still staring. 

“What?” she asks, moving one of her hands to his shoulder, squeezing light. “Jughead, what?” 

He shakes his head, and after a pause, he puts a hand on either side of her face, fingers careful and palms warm, and he kisses her. His thumbs are stroking her cheeks and his lips are soft and warm and Jughead Jones is kissing her, so she smiles into his lips and kisses back. When he pulls away to look at her, eyes cautious, she’s smiling. 

“Is this okay?” he asks, his voice quiet, and rough. Betty nods, biting her lip. But something tickles her brain, and she tilts her head. 

“More than okay, Jug, but… what happened to the girl?” she asks, hating herself for needing to know. 

“What? Girl?” Jughead frowns, looking confused, but leaves his hands on Betty’s face. 

“I saw you, at Pop’s. Making a playlist. All bittersweet indie love songs.” Betty blinks, leaning into the warmth of his palms willing him not to pull away. 

“You saw that?” Jughead’s face tints red “That wasn’t for some girl. That was um, for you. I chickened out though. Archie has been harping me to make a move on you forever, but I was nervous about you still having feelings for him so I—”

“Wait. It was for me?” Betty’s eyes light up, and she reaches up to put her hand over his, keeping it on her cheek. 

“Of course it was. Who else would it have been for?” Jughead looks confused again, tilting his head. “You’re the only person I’ve ever wanted, Betts.” he sounds so sincere that Betty almost cries, and knows in that moment she’s going to tell him everything. 

“You never had to worry about me still having feelings for Archie. I never had them in the first place. At a slumber party in middle school Cheryl asked me who I liked, and I panicked and said Archie, and I’ve just rolled with it ever since, but I never had a crush on him. It’s always been you, Juggie. You’re the one I really wanted all those years.” 

He’s grinning, and she’s grinning, and he leans down and kisses him again, and it is absolutely so much better than ten year old Betty, watching Jughead carry a purple plastic bucket with a snake in it, could have ever dreamed it would be. 

“Wanna go get a milkshake?” Jughead asks, when he finally pulls away, his voice no higher than a whisper. He has a goofy grin on his face, meant only for her, and Betty knows she looks the same. 

“Yeah,” she says, kissing his cheek softly. “It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> so this was a random idea i had and just... had to write. immediately. i know i should be working on 'the long way home' and 'the past dictates the future' but i've had the worst writers block and this just sort of Happened. title from 'first day of my life' by bright eyes which was ABSOLUTELY on the mix jughead was making for betty, fight me.


End file.
